"It is believed that nowhere in the farming portion of the United States would slave-labor be generally employed, if the proprietor were not tempted _to raise slaves by the high price of the Southern market, which keeps it up in his own_." "It is a melancholy fact," says the same writer in the "Richmond (Va.) Enquirer," Nov. 13, 1846, "that negroes have become the only _reliable staple_ of the tobacco-growing sections of Virginia, the only reliable means of liquidating debts foreign and domestic." The following advertisement is taken from the "Charleston (S.C.) Mercury" ("Slavery as it is," p. 175):-- "NEGROES FOR SALE.--A girl, about twenty years of age (raised in Virginia), and her two female children, one four and the other two years old; is remarkable strong and healthy, never having had a day's sickness, with the exception of the small-pox, in her life. The children are fine and healthy. _She is very prolific in her generating qualities, and affords a rare opportunity to any person who wishes to raise a family of strong and healthy servants for their own use._ "Any person wishing to purchase will please leave their address at the Mercury office." Does any reader exclaim there must be some mistake; it is impossible that such a notice could be inserted in the _leading political paper_ of South Carolina? Will he feel any more convinced by reading this, taken from the "_Boston_ Evening Post" of September 10, 1744?-- "TO BE SOLD,--A likely negro wench, about 25 years of age, that can do all sorts of household work, especially cookery; _is very hearty and strong; has proved her faculty at propagation_, and is very fluent in the English language. Inquire of the printer." Slavery is said to have existed in a _mild_ form in Massachusetts! And yet we find in our own history parallels to some of the most brutal atrocities which can be perpetrated on any human being. So essentially the same is the character and effect of slavery, wherever it exists! Does any one, and who does not, feel deep disgust at these recitals? Let us rather feel disgusted at the system which leads to such atrocities! Let not our indignation rest upon the story of the wrong, but upon the wrong itself and its perpetrators.